Time Waits For No One
by stars are brighter
Summary: Everyone's perspective is different and everyone has their own way of thinking about other people. What happens when certain events lead Shiina to think of her own past and future? Who does she love and who does she hate? Time really doesn't wait.
1. Chapter 1

Time Waits For No One

**Chapter 1**

The morning sun was – at least to Shiina – a horrible thing. It gleamed and shone across the wide expanse of school property as if it had a right to be there… as if it owned the place. As if someone actually _wanted _or _cared _about it. It was stupid, dumb, idiotic, and mercilessly bright and cheerful.

Shiina hated it.

Long strands of black hair escaped from the scarf around her neck and waved behind her as the wind hit her face, caressing her clenched jaw and narrowed eyes. Everything about her life here was stupid. One couldn't even call it a life… maybe a less than horrible death, but never really 'life'. Her friends here were going to disappear one day. She knew this well, but cared not to think of it. If anyone was going to be disappearing then it would be her.

She hated this place, so what was there to stay for?

Still, Shiina was here. Always would be here as long as her friends were. Nothing ever changed.

"This is so stupid."

"Perk up and feel the music, man!" TK's voice penetrated her deep and depressing thoughts abruptly. She turned, letting up on her clenched jaw for a moment and trying to act non-chalant.

"I am not a man," came her oh-so-calm-and-collected reply. TK looked a bit confused, as if he were sure that his out of the blue comment would make her feel better. Or at least get a rise out of her if nothing else. He might've been sort of thick headed and narrow minded, but that didn't mean he couldn't see when someone was down in the dumps.

"Perk up and feel the music, girl! …Woman. Eh… female?"

"This is so stupid."

That ended the conversation pretty quickly and TK soon went back to dancing like a DJ, or whatever else he was imagining in that head of his. A sigh of exasperation quickly departed from Shiina's lips as she leaned against the railing of the stairway. Yuri – or 'Yurippe' as some liked to say – would usually let Shiina do whatever she pleased with her free time. The girl only really appeared when trouble was up and about. That was the problem right now.

There was trouble. And not just any trouble, but _big trouble. _Naoi, the vice-president of the Student Council, had only just a few days before become the temporary _President _of the school. The rest of the Battlefront believed him to be an NPC of some new proportions, but Shiina wasn't fooled. Whenever he came close enough for her to look directly in his eyes…

She just knew something wasn't right. Something was off about this guy, and it was making her incredibly uneasy. Especially when Shiina would hear the muffled screams of a real NPC student getting the crap beat of him by the new 'President'. Naoi was a leech, and she was not fond of leeches. They sucked off of whatever kind of power source they could find, and wouldn't let go for all the bribes in the world. She knew his kind. He was a leech alright, but a stupid one. If he thought that beating up a few students and intimidating the rest was going to earn him respect, then he was dead wrong.

Or maybe he was just dead.

That was it. Naoi wasn't an NPC – Shiina had known this from the start, but doubted Yuri would believe her if she said anything – he was dead just like the rest of them. A lost soul that had never gotten to live out its youth in the real world.

"We're all damned to this hell forever."

"Don't be like that, Shiina! Rock n' roll and go with the music-"

"Shut up, TK."

Anyway, back to her thoughts of doom and gloom. This Naoi was not going to pull the wool over her eyes like he had with everyone else. As long as he didn't take out some incredibly cute object, then he wouldn't stand a chance alone against her. Shiina nodded her head, reaching nimble fingers upwards and absent mindedly tucking strands of hair behind her ear.

Suddenly her walkie-talkie crackled with static before the clear voice of Yuri sounded over the transmission system. "Is anyone there? Can anyone here me?"

"This is Shiina. You're coming in clear enough, Yuri."

"Alright, good. Whoever else is on this channel, listen closely. Otanashi and Angel have gone missing. They haven't reported back to headquarters yet and I warned everyone beforehand that we had to have regular check times. It's been two hours since he called in last!"

_No. No this can't be… this isn't right! I've got to find that leech… and destroy him…_

"Shiina? Are you listening?" Yurippe's voice seemed strained as if she were trying to hold her composure while thinking up some sort of plan at the same time.

"Not really."

"Naoi is a human. He has a human soul just like us. I thought… I thought he was an NPC before, but no NPC would act against their programming like this."

_Big surprise._ "I see."

"I'm going to try and locate Otanashi – or at the very least, contact him. I gave him his own walkie-talkie before he left, so I might be able to find the right channel and call in to see if he's okay or not. Something is going down soon, Shiina. I can feel the tension in the air. I need you to go on a solo mission and… and… hey… what's happenin-"

The transmission went dead. Something had interrupted_! How rude! _Shiina guessed it wasn't a pack of bunnies (unfortunately) so the time to act was now. This was all that Naoi's fault. Still, from the determination in Yuri's voice, he obviously had come alone or with small numbers. Shiina was sure he'd lure them out near the baseball field and there would be a battle there like no other. Leeches were easy to decipher if you were good at understanding people's character.

Luckily, that was one of Shiina's strong points. _

_**Hope you guys liked it! My muse right now is out of the roof for Angel Beats (finished watching the last episode a couple days ago, so I just gotta write about it, ;3). Anyways, this is set around the time of the series when everyone is realizing that Naoi is the bad guy. Right before the big battle. This isn't going to happen the same way it did in the actual anime, though there are lots of parts that are the same. Spoiler warnings, just so you know! Shiina was one of my fave characters and I CANNOT believe they didn't add more of her in there. It's just sad. So this chapter is dedicated to her. **_

_**There will be more chapters to come! Don'tcha worry. **_

_**Lots n' lots n' lots and… whatever I'm feeling like putting lol. Keep watching and reviewing! 3 **_

_**I also got 'Time Waits For No One' from the animated movie, 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' (it's awesome, so you guys should totally watch it!). **_

_**I don't own Angel Beats! or the characters related to it, but I do own this fanfic! **_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

* * *

><p>It was impossible. Impossible for Shiina to understand why everyone was so laid back and cheerful once again after the ordeal that they had gone through. What was there to be happy about? If this had truly been reality, then they would all have been dead by now – never to be remembered by anyone, weaklings in the eyes of the NPC students. Not that she really cared what NPC's thought, but still… the girl was trying to make a point here. Shiina could almost feel Naoi's eyes on her, watching <em>her<em> and yet everyone else as well at the same time. He was keeping tabs, knowing she hated it, and _knowing _that no one else cared.

He would give her a smirk whenever she uttered the words 'this is stupid', even if it were so quiet that normal human ears would be loathe to hear it. Sometimes Shiina felt as if she were just a sideshow attraction to him – something he'd never seen before and was kind of happy to just sit and watch. This infuriated her to no end, and the absolute worst part about it was the obliviousness of her other friends. They couldn't see how much he bothered her, no matter how hard they were trying to pay attention, or how much emotion she put into her signature words of 'this is so stupid'.

But Yurippe was not a fool. No matter how much Shiina thought they weren't listening to her, or how much she thought they didn't care, _Yuri still noticed. _The battlefront leader did not do anything about it – yet – feeling that Shiina had to work out her own problems.

Everything came down to a climax one day when Naoi addressed Shiina, who was standing in her usual spot in the back of the room.

"Why do you always say the word 'stupid' in one form or another? Come to think of it… who _are _you? You look… familiar… somehow…"

His questions were like a punch to the stomach, but Shiina answered quietly and calmly, trying not to let any anger enter her voice. "It is usually the truth."

"Really? Well, in any case, you only answered one question. Please continue."

"I don't feel the need to explain to you who I am. You've been here long enough to know my name already."

"I didn't ask for your name."

"W-what?" Shiina couldn't remember one time in her life that she had actually stuttered out a word like that. "What do you mean? You asked who I was, didn't you?"

Naoi frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Exactly. So, answer the question."

In the front of the room, Noda was nudging Yuri with his axe, looking confused. "Hey? What're they doing over there?"

Yuri replied by stepping on his foot to shut him up, giving him an equally painful jab in the ribs with her elbow. "Be _quiet_, moron. I'm trying to watch this."

It was too late, however. Shiina had no intention of staying around to ponder a question that she would never answer. Maybe it was cowardly, maybe it was stupid of _her, _but she wasn't going to stay there any longer. Still… the girl had second thoughts when she turned to get one last peek at Naoi's reaction of her jumping out of the window…

He still had that same infuriating smirk gracing his lips.

* * *

><p><strong>So… this was sort of short. I promise to have the next one up soon, and it'll be longer! By the way, I want to thank anyone who has reviewed or is going to review both this story and other stories I've written! It really makes me happy when I see what people have to say about my work (I seriously do a happy dance inside). <strong>_**THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3  
><strong>_

* * *

><p>"Shiina?"<p>

The dark haired girl looked up slowly from where she was sitting in the cafeteria, a fork in one hand and a napkin in the other. Otonashi stared with one eyebrow raised. He looked bored, uncaring, and she wondered why he wasn't like the others. Why was he here? Why wasn't he with Yurippe, who was undoubtedly making plans to attack Angel again? Or, wait… was Angel even their enemy anymore? Shiina was confused now. The enemy was the enemy. That was what her father had always taught her. The _enemy _doesn't just become your _friend _after a couple of hours, so… ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Besides, it wasn't as if she herself hated Angel really. The Student Council President was just a nuisance and nuisances shouldn't be bothered with, in her opinion.

"…What?"

Otonashi looked almost surprised that she had answered him at all. But he smiled and sat down across from her, eying the plateful of… _something_… that she had managed to snag from the cafeteria line. It was gross, lumpy, and grey. And she obviously wasn't going to eat it but Yurippe had drilled it into them from the beginning to keep up appearances so…

"Nothing, really," he said, shrugging. "Just wondering if you were okay. I mean, you booked it pretty fast when Naoi started in on you."

"Are you asking if I'm fine?" She replied after a pause. He nodded. "No, then. I'm not."

"Well… honesty is the best policy I suppose," he said, looking a bit amused. "So what exactly isn't fine about you? You look about as gloomy as ever."

"I don't like interrogations."

"I'm hardly interrogating you."

"Then suffice it to say that I don't like it when people ask questions…" _questions that I can't answer, _was what Shiina didn't add. He obviously wasn't all that surprised this time and she found herself getting irritated. He was probably trying to comfort her out of some misguided sense of friendly loyalty, but she didn't need _him _or anyone else to come around and ask if something was wrong. The problem was, he wasn't asking, so she couldn't actually deck him for something he wasn't doing yet. She stood from her place at the table and slammed down the fork, turning her back on him and deciding that staying in the cafeteria might not be such a great idea if people could find her this easily. She didn't _want _company. Company was useless.

"Shiina," Otonashi stood too, his face grim. "Have you ever thought about… about moving on?"

"Moving on to where?" she snapped.

"Just moving on – you know, from here."

Her lips pursed and she balled her fists, her hair hiding her eyes. "No."

And that was very bluntly the end of the conversation. She didn't want to talk about moving on, nor did she want to discuss her social failings or what was going on in her life (or death). The constant avoidance of her problem (a certain teenage boy named Naoi who might or might not have been suffering from total idiocy syndrome – he _had _tried to continue interrogating her, after all. And that was grounds for mental evaluation in and of itself) was getting a little old. She didn't want to have to stay away from her companions forever. Otonashi was just the first wave – Shiina knew that Yurippe wouldn't let everything lie dormant forever. Their leader was nothing if not determined.

The girl contemplated quitting the 'team' for a while, but that would just be plain stupid. Quitting was not her thing and it never would be. Besides, she had almost become fond of the unchanging ritual of going after 'Angel' with the rest of her _friends, _if you could even really call them that. Maybe that was what was bugging her – the fact that everything was changing. And it was largely in part to Naoi joining Yurippe's Not-Dead-Yet Brigade (or whatever else she was calling it these days).

After about half an hour of this 'contemplation', Shiina decided it was time to leave. She jumped right out of the cafeteria window and landed smoothly on the grass outside. NPC students were already starting to filter out of the building and disappear off to who-knows-where to spend the rest of their day. Shiina wondered, as she often did, if any of them really had any other place to go or if they just walked about aimlessly until the next morning rolled around. It gave her a headache to think about it, so she shoved the muses out of her mind and turned her back on the crowds.

"Shiina, wait."

_For the love of god, _Shiina thought irritably, turning on her heel to face her leader. _Is everyone after me today? _Yurippe stood there, her arms crossed, staring in what could be called curiosity in Shiina's direction. How she had shown up without alerting the dark haired girl was a mystery (one that Shiina would probably never solve). Yuri just had this way about her – this commanding tone, stance, and _look_ that made you want to please her. It hardly ever worked on the ninja herself, but Shiina had to admit that the girl was intimidating sometimes. Like now, when she obviously wanted answers.

"Did you need something?" she drawled.

"Yeah, I do," Yuri snapped. "I'd like to know why you missed the meeting."

"Sorry."

Yuri rolled her eyes. It was almost amusing that Shiina thought she could trick the leader of the team into thinking she was repentant. The ninja was never, ever repentant about _anything. _That was just how it had always been and Yuri had never minded. She didn't mind _now,_ she just _minded _when Shiina decided to miss a scheduled meeting (more than one, actually).

Disobeying orders was unacceptable.

"I bet. Look, I don't think I ask for much. We care, Shiina – _all of us _– even if you'd like to thank we don't. But hey, that's fine, I'm okay with giving you your personal space. Up to a point, that is. And you've reached the limit. No, let me rephrase that. You've _crossed the limit _of my patience. So why don't you tell me while the hell you've missed _five _meetings so far and managed to avoid every single entity on this godforsaken campus besides Otonashi?"

Shiina met Yuri's eyes levelly, blinking away her own annoyance. She supposed she was lucky that her leader hadn't tied her to Headquarters by now because she had gone missing in action. Honestly, this was the most restraint she'd ever seen Yurippe use before. It was surprising.

"I have a reason," the ninja finally answered. "A good one."

"Oh, really? I'm all ears."

"Unfortunately you have a bug in your midst. Say the word and I'll kill it. But I don't like _cockroaches_, so as long as it's there, I'm gone."

At first, Yuri seemed a bit confused, but she finally broke into a smirk. "Ah, you mean _Naoi_, huh? Sorry, Shiina, but he stays. He isn't really a bug… I mean, he's close to one, but sometimes you just gotta deal. This is one of those times."

"No."

"Don't be like that," the leader muttered, frowning. "You're the best at dealing, so _deal._ I don't have all day to put up with your silent temper tantrums."

_Temper tantrums?! _Shiina found herself slightly affronted by such a notion. She was _not _having a temper tantrum! Just because she had chosen to become somewhat of a recluse in the last few days didn't mean she was actually throwing a fit. It just meant she wanted to be alone, away from the 'team' for a while, and especially away from _him – _the cockroach in question.

"C'mon, Shiina. I'll buy you a key-chain or steal a stuffed animal from one of the NPCs, just get your butt back into action… and just _try _and get along with Naoi."

The offer for a cute souvenir was completely overpowering. Yuri really knew where to hit her troops where it hurt. Shiina sighed and nodded slightly, earning a grin and a pat on the shoulder from Yurippe.

"Good! I'm sending you on a mission with him tomorrow morning, by the way. Be ready."

Okay. It was official. Yuri definitely had to be a demon from hell. That's all there was too it.

* * *

><p>.<p>

_A/N:_ Okay, can I just start out by saying how sorry I am that this took so long? I feel terrible, seriously. After all the wonderful reviews you guys gave me and everything, I should have been able to pump this one out. I do have an excuse for why, though.

High School.

Yeah, two words. But I think some of you know what I mean. It's just stressful to balance a crap ton of homework while at the same time trying to get enough muses to post a chapter. I feel drained at the end of the day, usually.

As promised, this one was a lot longer than the last one! I hope you enjoy.

Alright, so here goes the review responses...

**FadingSilverStar: **_Thanks! I thought it was interesting too, heh. I'm going to try my best with it, in any case. Shiina just really needs more love (she's such a depressed kid, poor thing)._  
><strong>Naoi390: <strong>_Aw, so sweet! Arigato, my friend. I'm glad I granted your wish._ :)  
><strong>Justmoosic: <strong>_Thank you for your review! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy when people like my stories. At least I know that I'm not the only one who likes slow stories and Naoi/Shiina pairings (there just isn't enough on them, *sigh*)._  
><strong>ColdGoldLazarus: <strong>_I know, the fact that they were just like, 'Oh, you're sorry now? Okay, we forgive you!' totally made me facepalm. Still, it's not like they could kill him, so having him on their side was probably a relief if nothing else. And yes. Shiina is awesome. To the core. Thanks for the_ review!  
><strong>Chaoscrazy: <strong>_Your wish is my command ~  
><em>**Windninja1000:** _Thank you! I'm glad you like the story._  
><strong>Amakatsu: <strong>_Oh, miss Ama. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's such a pleasure to know you read my stories! And keep me from being bored with your awesome PM's. A million hugs for you, my friend!_  
><strong>Shado Room of Souls: <strong>_Here is your update ~ Sorry it took so long, I am trying my bestest, I promise. (And yes, this pairing rocks my socks as well). Cheers!_

(I am not going to beg for more reviews. Just because I am currently on my knees with my hands clasped in front of me while giving you that oh-so-scrumptious puppy dog look does _not _mean I'm begging. Nope, not all)

**Disclaimer: **I think about Angel Beats a lot. Does that mean I own it? I wish.


End file.
